We have spent the last 6 weeks detoxing, drinking more water, and eating plenty of fibrous fruits and veggies. This week, we are going to shift our focus to another important part of your health- your mental health! Say what you will, but having good Mental, Physical, Emotional and Spiritual health are all key factors to your overall well-being. So, this week, let’s talk about one of my favorite topics: gratitude!
This
week, I have a homework assignment for you, and if you stick with it, I PROMISE
you that you will see your life change. Starting today, I want you to find 5
minutes to write down 3 things you are grateful for. Do this for the next 30
days. This may seem a little silly and trivial, but it is a game changer. I
started doing this in December of 2018 with the intent of only writing it for
30 days, and 2.5 years later it’s still a part of my daily routine- I love it
and it gives me great perspective. When you shift your mindset to one of
gratitude, it’s amazing the things you open yourself up to.
So why is gratitude so important? A common fear many people run into with gratitude is “if I’m grateful for what I have, nothing will ever change. If I’m just happy with where things are, I will never have a reason to grow.” Let’s break down WHY that is a misconception by looking first at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. As a quick refresher, this pyramid is the basis is which our human needs have to be met for the ultimate growth. The foundation of the pyramid is Physiological: the needs of food, water, warmth and rest. The next level is Safety, meaning we have to feel safe in our current life setting before we can progress onwards towards psychological needs.
To sum this all up, we have to appreciate what we have RIGHT now so that not only do we feel safe enough to reach for something higher but also so that we don’t take anything for granted. Once we feel safe, feel grateful with our homes, our bodies and health or our jobs then we can take that next leap towards our goals.
Take it from someone who has spent a lot of time being very self-critical, the more you wallow in all of the things that are wrong in your life, the harder it is to see any good. But the minute you take the time to be appreciative that you woke up this morning, had clothes to wear and food to eat life starts to look up a little. Then take that a step further and be grateful for what truly good things your life has, even if you have to start small and be grateful for your bed or your air conditioner.
Once you get into the habit of being grateful, you will quickly find how well that spills over into the rest of your life. You may be frustrated that you have an extra 15 pounds, but if you’re grateful that your body allows you to do every single thing it does every day, then suddenly you feel safe in that body and can allow yourself to take the steps to lose that weight.
In an article written Robert Emmons, the gratitude expert, claims:
Grateful people are more likely to be creative at work. Gratitude promotes innovative thinking, flexibility, openness, curiosity, and love of learning. Grateful people have an interest in learning new information and skills, and they seek opportunities to learn and develop. (In fact, a highly publicized 2015 study found that out of 24 strengths of character, love of learning and gratitude were the strongest predictors of overall well-being.)
Along with just having a better mindset, gratitude affects relationships, your workplace, your stress levels, your sleep- there are countless ways in which introducing gratitude into your daily life will change things in ways you never thought possible. When your mind is cluttered with the limitations as to all the things we cannot achieve and the reasons why we can’t move forward because things are bad, we struggle to achieve our goals. But when we are so grateful for the things that our already in our lives, we open ourselves to receive!
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